Breath of Fire: The Dragon Prince
by The Almighty Kaiser Dragon
Summary: A novelization of Breath of Fire III, by far my favorite game of the series. Chapter 2 is now up! R&R please!
1. Prologue

Breath of Fire III: A Novelization

A/N: I'm trying to make this as true to the game and script as possible, but I have changed a few things to try and make it flow a little better. Feedback would be great. Thanks.

**Breath of Fire III: A Novelization**

Prologue

_**The First Cycle**_

_When the Dragon Family was at the peak of its power,_

_A goddess of desire appeared. The goddess, Tyr, granted wishes. _

_The Dragons fought each other for her power._

_Tyr encouraged the fighting and watched the war between the Dragons escalate._

_When the world was at the brink of destruction_

_A warrior stepped forward._

_The Warrior battled Tyr with his seven companions_

_And locked her up using six keys._

_These "Goddess Keys" were scattered throughout the world_

_And hidden away._

_The Light Dragons balanced the power of the family and peace reigned. _

_**The Second Cycle**_

_It was like waking from a long dream... But now his father and sister_

_have disappeared and no one else recognizes him..._

_He dreamt of a horrific demon who ripped his heart and body apart..._

_But it remains just a dream._

_Yet, the vision remains strong. Deep within the corners of his mind,_

_he hears it calling. A different world... A world of silence... A_

_world of darkness. He moves toward it, feeling both fear and_

_exhilaration. He succumbs and the darkness welcomes him._

_"You are the one." The demon screeches. reaching deep within his own_

_mind he realizes that it is true. Then, at that moment, reality_

_washes away and the dream begins to take shape..._

"_Give yourself to God! Praise God…Pray to God! You must become God's strength…"_

_**The Third Cycle**_

**Dauna Mine**

The sound of the mine cart echoed throughout the dark tunnel of the Dauna mine, its wheels screeching on the rather rickety track. This was queer, for the mines were not old at all, so the ragged state of the tracks had to be owed to the cheapness of the Dauna mining company. Such cheapness was to be expected though, as they employed many from all over the Yraal and Windia regions to help them make some quick zenny mining chrysm ore.

Other than the cheapness of the mine cart tracks, the mine was actually quite normal. There were many noises, such as pickaxes, drills, cranes, and the occasional cave-in, which combined with the screeching of the rickety track, would make any normal man wince. However, the men in these mines weren't any normal men, but mining men.

Two of these men happened to be the source of the screeching noise, riding a mine cart through the mines towards a particular area of interest. To say that these were ordinary men though, would be robbing them of their true description, just as if saying their destination was normal.

The two were actually not men at all, or not humans anyway, but a mole-man and a Forest clansmen, and their destination happened to be the giant fossil of a dragon.

"A dragon…?" inquired the mole-man with an air of uncertainty. "I don't know about this Gary…"

The two were surreptitiously pumping each side of the lever on their mine cart, quickly approaching their destination. While it was true that going to mine a giant dragon fossil was not what the two signed up for, the creature was dead anyway and had been for hundreds of years. Plus, there was a lot of chrysm to be had.

"C'mon Mogu…" replied Gary with a wolfish grin. "It's really high quality stuff."

The two turned a corner, the mine cart screeching in protest, and disappeared into a dark tunnel.

**When magical beings die, their bodies slowly transform into the ore known as chrysm.**

By the time the mine cart had stopped, the two miners were in front of an elevator. This would transport them deeper into the shaft to where the high quality stuff was. It was written on Mogu's rodent-like face that he wanted to get this over with quickly; after all, it's not every day that one sees a dragon, dead or alive. The two listened solemnly to the hum of the elevator approaching from below.

"The dragons tried to destroy the world…" Mogu stated, a bit of a quiver in his voice.

"Yep." Replied Gary matter-of-factly. "Fought a huge war…THE War…"

The hum of the elevator stopped as it finally reached the two miners, stopping with a resounding thud. The two looked onto the empty car, almost as if waiting for the other to get on first. Gary ended up going on first.

"I sure wouldn't want to meet a dragon." Mogu ominously mumbled, before hopping on as well.

"Yea, but they're extinct now." Gary reassured him. The elevator began its decent.

**Even the legendary dragons, whose might shook the world, have in death become a source of energy in the form of chrysm.**

The decent was rather uneventful, but the tension in the elevator car was so thick it was as if it could be cut with a dull knife. Mogu looked to his coworker, Gary. He looked quite funny, being an anthropomorphic wolf wearing blue overalls and brown work boots. However, it being dress code and Gary being a stickler for rules, stuck with the silly human clothes. Mogu on the other hand, chose clothing that suited his clan: a blue tunic, white pants, and a white bandana. Sure he may have gotten reprimanded, but the Dauna Mining company would never fire him. He was a mole!

As the elevator came to a resounding halt at the lowest level of the mine shaft, the car shook a little bit from the impact. Mogu smoothed his clothes over with his paws and stepped off the car with his fellow miner. This was no time to get the jitters. As the two started walking, Gary began to say something to try to calm his friend down.

"Well even the baddest beast…" He began.

"…dies in the end like everyone else." Finished Mogu.

**No one knows how or why the mighty dragons became extinct.**

As Mogu and Gary walked deeper into the mine, the small mole-man could not shake a feeling of dread that had slithered its way into his conscience, constricting his thoughts. All living things died and left behind chrysm, and dragons were no different. He resigned to take a vacation as soon as he had the opportunity.

As the two approached the giant fossil, they looked up in awe, each of their jaws dropping. It truly was a magnificent site to behold, keeping its shape completely that it had when it had died so many hundreds of years ago. It was huge and green, with huge gaping holes on the head where the eyes were at one point, and two huge horns jutting out from the back of its head. Overall, it was several hundred times larger than both miners, and looked like they could walk in through one of the many holes in its body. In fact, that's exactly where they were stationed.

The inside of the fossilized beast was actually no different than the rest of the mine. The company had already been here, setting up so as to make mining easier on the workers. There were planks to walk on and torches lit so that they could see, and right in the middle of the walkway was a large and brilliant piece of purple chrysm ore. Upon closer inspection, Mogu found that there was a dragon inside, much to his chagrin.

Not letting this minor setback get in the way of their job, Gary and Mogu began to set explosives onto the chrysm so as to break it up for easier mining. The dragon inside wouldn't be a problem at all, it being dead and everything.

"OK!" Exclaimed Mogu upon completion of his task. "Explosives are set!"

"What is this?" replied Gary, shrugging his shoulders. "An egg or something?"

"You see ones like this ever so often…" Mogu muttered, nodding in reply.

"Well I'll be." Chuckled Gary, astounded.

"C'mon, let's get to work already." The mole-man nagged, more than a little put off by the dragon egg. He had already taken cover, preparing for the explosion.

Gary put down his backpack, which was full of explosives, and began to trace a fuse back a ways to where he and his partner were taking cover. He lit the fuse and ducked, listening as the fire traced the string all the way to his pack, making an explosion of tiny fireballs. These fireballs lit the explosives attached to the egg, and blew the chrysm to pieces.

The two were still taking cover, wary of the shrapnel, when they heard a little yelp. It wasn't like the yelp of a person, but of some sort of creature. The two got up and turned – surely it couldn't be the dragon, but sure enough, it was standing there in the rubble of its newly destroyed chrysm egg, staring inquisitively at them. Though it was just a curious baby, there was nothing about it that was charming nor cute, from its sharp claws to its crimson eyes.

"What the??" Gary exclaimed. "It's still alive!"

"WHOA!" Mogu yelled, shaking down to his very core. His instincts immediately took over and he reeled back and struck the creature.

The dragon was not phased at all by such a weak hit, and opened its mouth. Out poured a searing hot stream of fire, torching any and all in its path, including Mogu and Gary. The dragon then walked over to their charred remains, the floor around them an inferno, and let out a little screech. It then left the chamber to begin it rampage through the Dauna Mine.

**This is a tale dedicated to the dragons.**

The little green whelp made its way through the mine rather vigorously as it was quite quick on its feet. Being trapped in chrysm for so many years had left the lizard with quite a lot of energy, so it was quite inclined to get around and explore its surroundings. The dragon was quite oblivious as to why most of the people in the mine were running for their lives upon seeing him, so it was quite surprised when it found itself face to face with a couple of workers who thought that they could take it on.

"Ha, I'm not afraid!" said one, a bald man, to the other, a man with long red hair.

"Let's get it!" said the man with long red hair.

The two rushed the dragon, the bald man with a steel pipe and the red-haired man with a pickaxe, but before the battle could start, the dragon shot forth a stream of fire from its mouth. The two screamed in agony for a couple of moments before the heat became too much, incinerating their clothing and equipment and charring their skin. In mere seconds all that remained of the two men were blackened skeletons, their bodies to be forever contorted and their mouths to be eternally agape, screaming in agony.

The small bipedal lizard continued on its path through the mine, passing by many miners who weren't nearly as brave as their dead comrades. Most hid in corners or ran away from him screaming. Still some didn't even notice and just continued to work; the chrysm wouldn't mine itself.

Upon emerging from the giant dragon fossil where it awakened, the dragon came upon a man in a hard hat. The two made eye contact immediately and the man stopped dead in his tracks, shaking from his hat all the way down to his brown work boots. It wasn't every day that one saw a dragon, and even if it was a baby, it still had sharp claws and hot breath…no to mention malevolent red eyes.

"Somebody help me!" the man screamed, running away with much celerity.

The dragon walked out onto the platform, its curiosity still not piqued. It was determined to explore the place as much as possible and hopefully meet some people that would finally be nice to it. It's not as if the creature was running around and killing people for the sake of killing them; everyone was attacking it. As the dragon walked out to the middle of the platform, it came face to face with a man from the Iron-Ogre clan. Behind the dragon was a man at some sort of control panel, and the two made eye contact. It was not hard to figure out that the two had a plan.

"What's this about a dragon hmm?" The ogre-man growled, cracking his knuckles. "Let's take it alive!"

The giant threw a punch that connected with the dragon's face. This was the first blow that actually hurt the dragon, as its thick scales protected it from a lot of damage. The ogre-man's fists, however, were about twice as large as the dragon's head, so pain was inevitable. The dragon screeched and reared back, about to blast the giant into oblivion, when a voice popped into its head.

"**NO! DON'T!"**

The dragon looked up to the giant dragon fossil and turned its head, looking for the source of the voice. This was all the opening that the miners needed, and the man at the control panel began punching in buttons after a nod from the ore-man. In a flash, a crane hand came from behind the dragon and hit the back of its head with a sickening thud, and then the creature fell prone to the ground.

A/N: Questions? Comments? Concerns? Criticisms? Please drop me a review, they would be much appreciated. Oh, and don't worry about hurting my feelings. I can take it!


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Three's a Crowd

Chapter 1: **Three's a Crowd**

The noonday sun beat down hard upon the cabin resting in the Cedar Woods, making the birds perched atop it feel lazy and lethargic. There were a plethora of them in all colors and shades: blues, reds, and purples alike, resting up for their long migration flight for the winter. In fact, it was such a nice autumn day that they would be content to sit perched together like that all day, lest some sort of disturbance stir them from their midday reveries. Alas! If only birds could speak, it is a wonder what sort of tales they could tell. No man has ever been across the sea, yet these birds may do it as they please.

Not to be outdone by the prime display of sloth happening right on his rooftop, the patron inside, a woren, was just waking up from his slumber. After ambling sleepily down the stairs from his room and into the kitchen, he looked around, trying to locate something to appease his growling stomach. He ran his hand through his hair once, his bangs falling down over his eyes in their usual place. He seemed to be having a minor case of bed head, but nothing he was worried about.

The cabin itself was actually only the upper part of the house – the bedroom – the lower half had a kitchen and basement and was actually a giant tent. It was completely surrounded by a log fence and was situated near a little stream, so it was actually rather secluded and altogether strange looking. Any normal passersby might think the abode a little queer, but strangely, the home suited its inhabitants.

The woren man shuffled through his bare kitchen, looking for something, anything, to eat. Unfortunately, being a poor orphan often meant that he had to basically live meal to meal, and his kitchen, which was quite minimalist, had minimal food as well.

"Where'd all the apples go?" the tiger-man mumbled groggily, heading over towards the empty dining table.

He stared for a moment at the empty table, almost as if he expected food to spontaneously generate before him. After a couple of moments of staring to no avail, he began to wonder where his fellow housemate was, as he probably knew where all of the apples went.

"Rei!" called a voice from outside, snapping the tiger-man from his thoughts.

Rei shook his head and slowly made his way outside, climbing the stairs onto the log fence and walking around the house to where the voice had come from. Sure enough, his housemate was standing in the back, a bunch of apples sitting on the ground near him. Rei stood with his hands on his hips, staring at the mischievous purple-haired youth before him.

"What is it Teepo?" Rei asked, jumping down from the fence.

"Rei, check this out!" The youth, Teepo, said back smilingly. "Watch that apple over there!"

There was a fresh red apple sitting on a stump in the yard, and Rei began to doubt that this was going to be productive. The apple would be much better suited in his stomach, appeasing his hunger. Just when Rei was about to go over and take the apple off the stump with all intentions of consuming it, he noticed his friend spread his legs apart, bracing himself.

Teepo held out his hands and closed his eyes, a look of sheer concentration etched on his pale and slightly feminine face. Rei began to feel a slight breeze blowing through the yard, and felt a strong tension in the air. Teepo's long hair began to blow back with this breeze, and in his hands formed a purplish ball of lightning; Rei could tell that it was pure magical energy. Then Teepo suddenly opened his eyes and the ball of energy dissipated, the breeze stopping suddenly as well. Teepo pointed to the stump where there was now an apple that was completely frozen.

"What do you think?" Teepo asked proudly. "I call it, 'Frost'!"

"I call it ruining lunch!" Rei exclaimed, running over to the apple on the stump. "I can't eat this!"

He then looked to the pile of apples beside Teepo and noticed that they looked a bit strange. Teepo must have been at it all morning, for every last apple, about a dozen in all, was frozen. The following roar that came from Rei's mouth was certainly disturbance enough to wake every last bird on his roof from their slumber, and in a flurry of squawks and feathers, they had gone.

"Now that you mention it…" Teepo muttered, his stomach growling, "I am a little hungry."

"Well I'll go get dinner, but you're cooking." Rei replied, exasperated.

As Rei jumped the fence and walked into the house to get his knives, Teepo could hear him saying his famous line to himself: "Doesn't this just beat all?"

-

At exactly the same moment, a train chugged along on its track, right above the Cedar Woods and only a few minutes walk away from the little cabin in the forest. It was a small train, only two cars, but it was befitting of the cargo that it held. There was only one person aboard, on the front car, and it was the driver. The caboose held a cage atop it, and in this cage a little dragon – the exact one that had terrorized the Dauna Mines just a day earlier.

It had been decided that killing the dragon would probably make the miners and the heads of the mining company feel better, but it would not make up for all of the money lost when all of the day's chrysm went un-mined. Instead, it was decided that the dragon would be taken to Wyndia, where a pretty profit could be procured and the pest be rid of simultaneously. Unfortunately, the dragon was just waking up, and not happy to be trapped in a cage.

The driver of the mini-train had already been driving for hours, and still had hours left to go before reaching Wyndia, and was thus lost in his own thoughts trying to pass the time. Just when he was hoping that the dragon would not wake up (for he was terribly fearful of dragons, and especially this one which had killed his coworkers), he was snapped back to reality by a rattling sound from the back. Thinking that the sound was just his imagination, or perhaps even due to the railroad and train being old, he began to drift back into his thoughts. Then the rattling came again, only this time, much louder. The man stopped the train and turned around just in time to see the dragon and cage falling off the car and into the forest below.

-

All was quiet in the Cedar Woods except for a slight grunting from a hog walking down the path of the forest. Thinking it was alone, it walked leisurely toward a clearing up ahead, looking for a meal of grass and shrubs. Little did it know that it was being watched from the bushes by the eyes of a tiger.

Rei's yellow feline eyes became like slits as he watched his prey intently. His tail twitched in anticipation, the golden fur standing on end. Rei was usually like a man; he had a conscience and the ability to reason. However, whenever he went hunting, something deep within him, something feral, took over. He welcomed it, as he felt that this wild side was truly him, plus, he almost always caught what he was hunting. Being a woren had its perks.

The hog's back being completely turned away from him, Rei's hands quickly went to his knives. He was poised, ready to pounce on the animal, when a bark resounded through the woods. The hog quickly turned tail and fled, and in the matter of moments, Rei had lost his dinner.

"Damn it!" The woren cursed. "I don't get many chances like that any more!"

Looking ahead down the path towards the clearing, Rei saw the culprit behind the barking: two currs standing under a tree, nipping at a poor little naked blue-haired boy. There was an open cage with iron bars beside them. Since the kid probably would not last long in that condition, and because his meal was now ruined, Rei decided to intervene. Just as one of the curr's was about to take a large bite out of the back of the boy's head, Rei threw a knife into the tree they were standing under. The thud that followed alerted the dog's to his presence.

"Oh boy, this is just what I needed…" Rei said to himself, walking up to the two dog monsters.

The two currs charged him at the same time, knowing it would take the both of them to even hope to take down Rei. Unfortunately for them, Rei had been living on his own since his childhood, and was therefore far too much for them to handle. In mere seconds, Rei had taken his fighting daggers from their sheathes and thrown them into each dog's forehead, killing them both instantly.

"That'll teach you to scare off my dinner!" He exclaimed, walking over and pulling his knives from the dog's heads. He walked over to retrieve his knife from the tree as well, bending down to check on the child. Plastered on the boy's face was a look of terror, but that generally comes with almost being eaten.

"Who might you be, an orphan?" The boy only mumbled in reply, and Rei stood up. "You're lucky those curse didn't chew you to pieces."

As Rei began to walk away, he began to have second thoughts. He and Teepo were orphans as well, and this was strangely similar to the way he had met his fellow housemate. Turning around, he began to consider it, but decided that he just could not take care of someone else.

"Mommy…?" The boy weakly gasped, and Rei's mind was immediately changed.

"Alright alright already!" He said exasperated, walking to the child and throwing him on his back. "Uncle Rei'll take you home. You better appreciate this."

As Rei began the short walk back to his house, he wondered where the little boy could possibly have come from. Thinking that perhaps the cage had something to do with it, he then began to wonder where **that** could've come from. Rei was no rocket scientist, but he knew that people did not just appear out of thin air!

Then Rei began to worry about how they were going to eat. With another mouth to feed, and food being scarce everywhere, the possibility of starving came to his mind. Rei loved to eat and the thought of starving to death sent a shiver down his spine. It was definitely in his top five worst ways to die.

-

When Rei finally arrived home, he knew that Teepo was going to be disappointed. He had promised food, and yet again he had come back empty handed. Well, not exactly this time, but the blue-haired boy could not be eaten. Rei resigned himself to go steal some apples from McNeal village later. It seemed to be the only solution lately.

"Is that dinner!?" Teepo asked excitedly, eager to finally have Rei home. Rei almost dropped the kid in surprise.

"Boy, you'll eat anything, won't you Teepo?" Rei asked dryly. The purple-haired youth winced.

"C'mon, I'm starving here!" Teepo replied. "Who is that anyway?"

"Don't ask me…" Rei said. "Let's get him into your bed, okay?" Teepo sighed and complied, running upstairs to the bedroom to prepare the bed.

When he got upstairs, Rei threw a sleeping gown onto the youth and set the boy down onto Teepo's bed. He had been sleeping soundly on the walk home and though Rei had walked up the stairs and dropped him on the mattress, the boy was not disturbed in the slightest. He looked very peaceful while sleeping, a complete turn around from his state of distress only a short while ago.

"I'm sorry about dinner Teepo." Rei said with a serious tone in his voice.

"It's fine!" Teepo replied. "We can always steal apples from McNeal."

Rei smiled wanly. Another day and another promise to Teepo that he couldn't keep, yet the boy was never upset. Oh to be young and not have a care in the world…

"So who is he?" Asked Teepo, bringing Rei back to reality.

"I told you I don't know. I found him in the woods." Rei replied. His mind was still elsewhere somewhat.

"Sounds like what happened with me…" Teepo muttered.

"An orphan…" Rei spoke, scratching the back of his head. "Not surprising – it's been a lean year." Teepo only nodded in response. The shortage of crops affected everyone in the Yraal Region, but it was especially tough being orphans and living on their own.

"Let's let him sleep and go down to the village." Rei said, walking toward the stairs. He was halfway down when he called up: "I'll be down here."

"Someone abandoned him…just like me." Teepo thought to himself, going downstairs as well.

-

Suddenly, the blue-haired boy's eyes sprung open, and he was standing in the middle of a beautiful meadow, still wearing the gown given to him by Rei. There was a rainbow of flowers, with an assortment of butterflies at each petal, and birds flying and chirping overhead. Running right through the middle of the field was a pristine river, sparkling and brilliantly clear. He suddenly turned around, hearing someone approaching him from behind.

A very well dressed man stood before him, decked out in a purple tunic and purple tights, and also wearing a purple mantle. It matched his long violet hair, and combined with his pale face and sharp features gave him an intimidation aura.

"Don't you see Ryu?" The man asked, pointing menacingly at him. "You're the same as me – you must understand…They're weak, pitiful and pathetic!" He threw his arm out to his side, denouncing those he was speaking of. A gust of wind suddenly blew through the meadow, and the man faded away.

"Ryu…?" The boy said to himself. "Am I…Ryu?"

Suddenly there was a glorious flash of light, and Ryu had to shield his eyes for fear of being blinded. When the light dimmed Ryu looked to the source, which was above him, and there floated a gorgeous woman in a bright pink robe, with flowing blonde hair and four beautiful angelic wings that had the most beautiful white plumage. She began to descend toward him until she was levitating right before him, and she smiled, reaching out to touch his face.

"Ryu…" She whispered serenely, bringing her hands to her breast. "My…Ryu…"

And just as suddenly as she appeared, she was gone in a flash of light, and everything went black.

A/N: Leave some love for me please! Anything will do: questions, comments, criticism. I just want some kind of feedback. By the way, I did change the dream scene just a bit, but I kind of like it better like this. It's just a bit more foreshadowing.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Chapter 2: Five Finger Discount

_A chill wind blew through the tiny hamlet of McNeil, spreading snow over the road running through. It was evening time, and the frigid air was unforgiving, but if one were to walk outside they would see a paragon of winter night. The moonlight illuminated the village so that it seemed like it was covered in a giant white blanket; the trees, the road, and the houses were all covered in about a foot of snow. It was plain to see from the effulgence coming from the window of every home that the whole of the populace was indoors, probably sitting by the fire and enjoying a nice warm dinner._

_Tonight was the night of the Winter Festival, the annual celebration in McNeil of the coming of winter, and almost on cue the snow had started at dawn. By dusk it was no longer snowing, but enough snow had dropped during the day to make it so that no one in their right minds would be out at such a cold time during the day, especially when there was a warm fire and family to be celebrating with. No one except for two orphans, that is. They were shuffling about from window to window, looking in forlornly at all of the villagers enjoying their holiday. _

_"Rei, it's cold." Teepo said with a shiver. He was wearing a large blanket around himself like a shawl, but it did little to help keep the cold out. Being miniscule in stature, he could only take so much of the frigid weather. _

_"I know." Replied Rei. He seemed a lot more comfortable, wearing his usual blue pants and vest. His fur was lightly coated with a layer of snow, but he was still pretty warm._

_Rei had promised Teepo earlier that year that they would have a wonderful Winter Festival, complete with presents and a great feast, like a normal family. The only thing Rei could produce though was the blanket that Teepo was wearing, which was he stole from the village. It was now evening and the Winter Festival was almost over, yet they were still left cold and hungry at the end of the day, just like every other day._

_"Someone's gotta have some extra food." Rei said hopefully, walking in front of the inn. It was at the end of the road; any further and the two orphans would be no longer in the village. _

_"Rei, let's just go home…" Teepo said dejectedly. "There's nothing for us here…"_

_"I'm sorry…I really am…" Rei apologized. Then he turned and knocked on the door. _

_Footsteps could be heard approaching the door from outside, and then a latch being lifted and a lock unlocked. The heavy wooden door swung open and the plump innkeeper stood in the doorway, looking quite surprised. She was wearing a white cotton nightgown, and her brown hair was tied into a bun._

_"What are you hoodlums doing here!?" She exclaimed. "Scram!" She was just about to slam the door when she looked at the orphans' poor starving faces. _

_"Please Matilda…" Rei begged. "We're so cold and hungry."_

_The middle-aged woman popped her lips and beckoned the two in from the cold. Though she knew they were poor orphans, and thieves to boot, she could not just lock the two out in the snow to starve. _

_"Well c'mon then." She said, letting the two in and closing the door tightly. "There's plenty of food, and a fire to warm you up." _

-

"Rei!" Teepo yelled, punching him lightly in his side. Rei suddenly snapped back from his flashback, and looked at Teepo.

The woren mumbled something incoherent and looked around, realizing that they had arrived in McNeil. They were at the entrance to the village; to their left was a road with many houses, and on their right, a hill with a secluded house. That would be their target.

"Ready?" Teepo said, a little too excited for his own good.

"Always…" replied Rei, very business-like.

The two then walked inconspicuously toward the house…

-

Ryu's eyes suddenly shot open, the bland ceiling above being their first sight. The blue-haired boy groggily looked around the room, seeing a diary at the far side and an empty bed beside him. Other than those items, the place was actually rather bare.

"Where am I?" the youth said to himself, hopping off the bed.

Ryu looked down at himself, feeling the gray gown that was on him. He had no idea where it had come from, and no amount of thinking about it was going to jog his memory. In fact, now that he thought about it, he had no idea where he himself had come from. He decided that a walk would be in his best interests; at least that was he could find out where he was.

As he walked downstairs and out of the house, the boy called out in case there were any people at home. However, much to his dismay, there was not a soul around save the monsters lurking behind the trees. Sensing them, Ryu decided it would be a good idea to stay on the dirt path rather than venture through the trees.

After a short walk, he found himself out of the woods and on a dirt road, with fields on either side of him. In the distance he could see a few houses.

"Where there's houses there's people!" Ryu yipped excitedly and took off sprinting towards the town.

As he ran down the hill entering the town, he heard a loud racket coming from the house on a hill to his left. There was a loud crash and the voices of several people yelling, and then he heard a door open and slam.

"Outta my house you punks!" Yelled a very high pitched and very furious voice.

Ryu stopped and looked, curious at what was happening, and then realized that there was a large shadow descending upon him. Jumping back at just the right time, Ryu saw Rei land right in front of him where he had been standing just a split second before.

"Hey, you're up!" Rei ejaculated, a little bit winded.

"Do I know you?" Ryu asked, furrowing his brows and backing away slightly. There was then another loud slam and yelling.

"Haha, you'll never catch me!" Came the voice of Teepo from atop the hill, and then he leaped down as well, landing beside Rei, though not nearly as gracefully. A silhouette of an old fat woman appeared atop the hill, shaking her fist angrily. Ryu looked back at the two of them, completely speechless.

"It's no use Rei, everyone is looking out for us!" Teepo said, sucking air in between words. He then noticed Ryu standing in front of them. "Hey, you're up!"

"Wait, what is going on?" Ryu asked, extremely confused.

Rei and Teepo then related their story to Ryu, about how the two were orphans and how Rei had found Ryu in the woods. After the story was done, Ryu's stomach began to growl, and like a chain reaction, Rei and Teepo's stomachs followed suit.

"Doesn't that just beat all? Another mouth to feed!" Rei said, almost annoyed.

"What if we get him to help us?" Teepo replied.

"Good idea…" Rei said, his tail twitching, almost like it was agreeing. "But first, we need to get him out of his pajamas."

"C'mon! We'll get you fixed up with some equipment!" Teepo said, running off down the road. Rei quickly turned and followed, and Ryu brought up the caboose.

They stopped in front of a small house with a sign with a picture of a sword out front. It was nothing special, just a small shop, with probably the owners living quarters upstairs. That was how all the shops were, what with McNeil being such a small village. Rei stood poised at the door, listening, waiting for his chance to strike.

"What's he doing?" Asked Ryu, cocking his head slightly.

"Don't worry Ryu!" Replied Teepo. "Rei is gonna hook you up with some equipment in no time!"

"You're not exactly reassuring, Teepo." Said Ryu, looking at the both of them.

Rei slipped inside the shop quickly and quietly, leaving the door slightly ajar. The two boys sat in silence, waiting for the tiger-man, when they suddenly realized something. They had said each other's names, almost like it was second nature to them.

"Did you just – " Teepo started in shock, pointing at Ryu, who only nodded. "And did I just – " He now pointed at himself. Ryu only nodded again.

"How did we know each other's names?" Ryu asked with a genuine feeling of wonder in his eyes. There was an eerie silence before Ryu's eyes suddenly glazed over.

A flash-flood of images began to rage through Ryu's mind: A huge city made of stone, dragons soaring through the blue skies above, large gargoyle-like creatures, a huge castle, and a vast sea. Then he was sitting at a vast table inside the stone castle, with many people dressed in regal clothing sitting around him. Finally there was the horrifying image of those people dead bloodied, all around him, and the beautiful woman of his dream standing, looking on.

"Ryu!" Teepo called the boy, a look of worry on his face.

Then Ryu began to see the inside of a mine, and the looks of horror on the miners faces. He felt the warm stream come from his mouth as they were hit and burned alive. The sound of Rei breaking through the door of the shop brought him quickly from his reverie.

"Uh-oh! Scram!" He yelled, already halfway down the road and almost out of the village. The two boys followed, not wanting to be caught by the shop owner.

-

When the three boys had finished running, they were all the way down the road close to the McNeil farms, which were not fairing very well at all. Drought caused what little plants there were to become brown and wilted, while the rest of the once fertile ground was left barren and cracked. A couple of farmers stood by, usually hard at work at this time of the year, but the only work they would be doing is shaking their heads in disappointment.

"It's really too bad that everyone's in a bad mood over the poor harvest…" Rei mumbled. The three were now leisurely strolling down the dirt path toward the Yraal Road.

"Maybe their bad moods have something to do with the fact that you were robbing them." Ryu said matter-of-factly. Rei lifted his brow a bit at this.

"And to think that I stole some clothes for you!" Rei said, pretending to be hurt.

Ryu was actually now wearing those clothes, which was actually some white kicks, white shorts, and a white button-up leather shirt with shoulder pads. The protection the clothes gave was worth every penny that was spent, but they would have to do.

"You may call it robbing," Teepo claimed, "But we prefer 'working'. Anyways, there's a road up ahead, Yraal Road, where we should be able to do some more 'work'. Maybe we'll get something this time."

"But – " Ryu began to protest, but was interrupted by a large furry hand over his mouth. He looked to Rei, who put his finger to his lips, his sharp nail pointing skyward.

They had arrived at the road, and very far in the distance there was a large man approaching, albeit at a turtle's pace. The three quickly ran to the side of the road and up a small hill and sat in wait. They were strategically placed behind a bush as not to be seen easily.

"Look, it's not like we're hurting people." Teepo said silently as not to give away their cover.

"Yea, I'm totally not into that sort of thing." Rei whispered. The man was getting closer. "Now hush, here's our unlucky sap now."

Upon closer inspection, the man was quite large and menacing looking. He was wearing blue jeans and a white shirt with a vest over it that looked as if it was made from deerskin. He had long shaggy brown hair and a great brown beard covering most of his lower face. Speaking of his face, it was quite hard and over all he had a menacing look about him, like a bear.

Suddenly, Ryu felt a shove from behind and he was stumbling down the hill towards the large man with fleetness and barreled right into him. Ryu had the wind knocked out of him and fell on his rear, silently cursing Teepo for pushing him. The man looked over at the boy, barely phased by the blow.

"What are you doing, trying to rob me?" The man asked gruffly, bending down to help Ryu up. "We've got enough trouble around here with those rascals Teepo and Rei."

Ryu laughed nervously, staring up at the large man. He thought: If this man really wanted to, he could crush him rather easily, probably with just one of his mighty hands. This truly was not a man to mess with, and what he said next only made the blue-haired boy more frightened.

"If you run into them, tell them that if I catch them…" The large man cracked his knuckles menacingly before continuing. "They'll be sorry! Now I've got some errands to run in McNeil, so why don't you go do some honest work?"

The large man began to walk away and once he was out of earshot, Rei and Teepo rushed down from the hill. Teepo's face was lit up like the sun, making Ryu fear that Teepo had another bright idea.

"Sorry about that…" Rei apologized, scratching his head. "That's Bunyan, he's kind of our neighbor."

"He's kind of big!" Ryu exclaimed. Teepo scoffed.

"Who does he think he is anyway!?" The purple haired boy yelled, kicking the air. "Well, since he's not going to be at his house, that means that it's going to be completely unoccupied for a while! I'm a genius, right?"

"Hey, don't take all the credit!" Said Rei, hands on his hips.

Ryu gulped – he had a feeling that this was not going to end well. Besides, he didn't want to rob people, it just felt so beneath him.

"Don't worry." Rei said reassuringly. "Besides, we gotta eat!"

A/N: Sorry it took so long for an update, but it's been hectic. The next updates will probably be irregular as well, because I'm going to be starting a full time job for the summer soon. Anyways, I'll try and keep this thing alive as long as you guys keep reading. Thanks!


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